Photo: Krishna Pradhan · CC BY-SA 4.0

Recipes · Lunch

Brown Rice Vegetable Fried Rice with Egg

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Day-old brown rice stir-fried with scrambled egg, crisp vegetables, ginger, and garlic. It is the fast, flexible way to turn leftover rice into a lunch worth packing.

Total 27 min
Prep 15 min
Cook 12 min
Serves 4
Level Easy

Quick & Easy · Meal Prep · Vegetarian · Dairy-Free · Gluten-Free · Budget · Kid-Friendly

Brown rice keeps its bran for more fiber and magnesium than white, eggs add complete protein and choline, and the vegetables stretch a small amount of rice into a balanced meal.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Break up the cold rice with your fingers so there are no big clumps.
  2. Beat the eggs. Heat 1 tbsp avocado oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat, pour in the eggs, and stir for about 1 minute until just set, then slide them onto a plate.
  3. Add another 1 tbsp oil to the pan, then cook the carrot, broccoli, and green onion whites for 3 to 4 minutes, until crisp-tender.
  4. Stir in the garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
  5. Add the last 1 tbsp oil and the rice, spread it out, and let it sit untouched for 1 minute so it starts to toast, then stir; repeat for about 4 minutes, until hot with some crisp grains.
  6. Stir in the peas, tamari, and pepper and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the peas are hot.
  7. Return the eggs to the pan, break them into pieces, and drizzle with the sesame oil.
  8. Toss in the green onion tops and divide among four bowls or containers.

Tips

  • Cold rice is the secret: fresh, warm rice steams into mush. If you are cooking it today, spread it on a tray and chill it for 30 minutes in the fridge.
  • Cool cooked rice quickly, refrigerate it within an hour, and use it within 3 days. Reheat the finished dish until steaming hot.
  • Rice holds more arsenic than most grains. Choose basmati when you can, and cook it in plenty of water and drain it, as the article on arsenic in rice on this site explains.
  • Add cubed tofu, leftover chicken, or shrimp for extra protein, and use whatever vegetables are in the crisper.

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